Difficulty of 5r55e Valve body swap?

[grizzlyxjim]

So how hard is it to do a VB swap on a 5r55e. Does this look like a good replacement? http://www.ebay.com/itm/5R55E-4R55E...ash=item1a26ec0534:g:304AAOSwuLZYyggC&vxp=mtr

I've never messed with a tranny and am a shade tree mechanic at best. Shops are quoting me 250+ fluid I am pretty sure my VB gasket is going, it's having a hard time shifting and I figured what the heck might as well get one with one of the shift kits pre installed. So is this a difficult procedure. I read through the 5r55e and watched an a1 parts video. still standoffish on this. Thoughts?

 

[grizzlyxjim]

Well I ordered it today so I guess I'll let yall know right quick

 

[BrooklynBay]

Make sure that you use the correct length bolts in their proper places. Tighten them in a criss cross fashion with an In/Lb torque wrench. Use bonded separator plates.

 

[John Chapman]

So how hard is it to do a VB swap on a 5r55e.

<<snipped>>
I've never messed with a tranny and am a shade tree mechanic at best. Shops are quoting me 250+ fluid I am pretty sure my VB gasket is going, it's having a hard time shifting and I figured what the heck might as well get one with one of the shift kits pre installed. So is this a difficult procedure. I read through the 5r55e and watched an a1 parts video. still standoffish on this. Thoughts?

I JUST swapped out my valve body gasket yesterday on this same transmission. I am not a mechanic, either. I definitely used the video from A1 as my guide. I found the problem and the solution from other posts on this site. Thank you ExplorerForum! I did not do much for mine. Dropped the pan. Dropped the valve body. Put all bolts in the same pattern into a piece of cardboard that represented the correct location. Take your time. Take pictures. Ensure that what you take off you can put back without issue.

I removed the old gasket, plate and gasket. I did NOT wash out valve body. I did NOT turn it upside down.
Replaced with bonded gasket.
I replaced the seal at end of reverse servo. I also replaced the seal on the reverse servo cover.
Mounted Valve Body. Make SURE you get the shifter into the slot. Easy to miss. Again, thank you 1A for this video.

Basically, it is pretty easy. YMMV.

It is a dirty job. I did it with my truck on blocks at the front.

Even with a drain pain, it is nasty.

I did a short blog and pictures at: http://followjohnc.com/hloI8

Lets see if I can link the pictures here.

New gasket mounted to the Valve Body

Good Luck!

 

[grizzlyxjim]

I ended up draining my savings to have a shop do it since I didn't trust my abilities, It took 5 days for them to do it and cost me 317 dollars in retrospect I wish I had done it myself. however it did fix my problem and the shift kit in it feels amazing. I would not recommend THP valve bodies, as the one I got was rusted a bit and they forgot the darn gasket. Had I done it myself I'd have not realized it was missing the gasket and had some major issues right quick.

 

[John Chapman]

I ended up draining my savings to have a shop do it since I didn't trust my abilities, It took 5 days for them to do it and cost me 317 dollars in retrospect I wish I had done it myself. however it did fix my problem and the shift kit in it feels amazing. I would not recommend THP valve bodies, as the one I got was rusted a bit and they forgot the darn gasket. Had I done it myself I'd have not realized it was missing the gasket and had some major issues right quick.

Well Jim, at least it is working for you. I almost wish I had paid. Such a dirty job without a lift.
REALLY, I'd love to get a complete rebuilt transmission with all the enhancements. Hard to justify OR afford all that.

- John

 

[Spudhut]

Thanks for the update. What was the main reason for the Valve body change? John, how difficult was the job for you and what was your main reason for the change? My trans is starting to shift hard from Reverse to Drive and vise versa...I have a 1997 Ex Sport 4x4.

Thanks.

 

[John Chapman]

Hello Spudhut - I see my reply is only three weeks late.

I had experienced increasing transmission shifting issues over the last 4 years.

The primary issue was that when I was in Overdrive on a flat road I could not go over 72 mph without the transmission just no longer engaging and the engine would overrev.

If I was in overdrive, and came upon a hill, the symptom would exhibit sooner. Seemed to be that X load in overdrive was the tipping point.

A second point of difficulty along side this, was the O/D switch. Sometimes I could switch out of O/D. Sometimes I couldn't switch out. 99 times out of a hundred I could pull over. Park. Turn off the engine. Start back up and then I could use the O/D switch successfully.

I started experiencing even more difficulties.

I could no longer take off with DRIVE selected. I had to take off in 1st gear. Otherwise, I would get shuddering as the transmission slipped and engaged.

I never experienced issues going into reverse gear.

After performing the repair as noted above, I am so stoked. Everything works PERFECTLY. I can launch. I can stay in O/D and go up hills. Downshifting will occur automatically as needed.

I don't have to monitor terrain when I am in Cruise Control.

Anything else you are curious about, I'm happy to help. I'm NOT a mechanic.....

 

[bigred4x4]

Well probably your best bet was to have the mechanic put it on if you were to do it yourself you would need the ATSG manual as there is a specific torque sequence between the 20 or so bolts it explains it in the manual and show you where they all go and it's definitely doable if you have a torque wrench.... You can download the 5r55e manuel online for free I would probably do that anyway as it is a good read and you learn a lot about automatic transmissions Especially Yours and could help in the future.

Best of luck I hope everything works out for you

 

[bigred4x4]

Here you go

 

[John Chapman]

Thanks BigRed4x4 - I downloaded it.
I did not use a torque wrench, but I did torque them down ..just so... starting from the middle and working my way out. Didn't realize that there was a specific pattern.
If I have to replace it again, I'll be more precise.

I looked through the manual you shared. Whew. Way more involved than I want to get into a transmission.

- johnc

 

[bigred4x4]

you didn't torque the bolts!? I never torque most bolts and pretty much every bolt on the vehicle has a torque spec . But the valve body is definitely something that should be torqued properly if your not applying even pressure all the way around it might work fine now but you'll have a much higher chance of gasket blowout and cross circuit leakage, or a warped valve body in the future that could cause all kinds of issues.

Page 110 and 111 is the sequence there are also different length bolts that have to go back to original positions

 

[John Chapman]

I used the guesstimate method on the torquing. Yup, I know that is not accurate. I bet they are all reasonably close to each other, but definitely not the same. It might have problems later, and if so I will make sure when I redo it to use a torque wrench. But considering how bad my gasket was (pics in beginning of this thread), I'm not sweating it!

As far as the different length bolts, I didn't worry too much. I made a cardboard template and poked a small point through each matching location for a bolt. I took a bolt off, it went in the matching location in the cardboard template. All bolts went back into original position on valve body.

Like I said way above, I am NOT a mechanic.

Thanks to this forum, and informative people like you, is how I learned the likely cause of my transmission woes. Thank you, and everybody else!

 

[bigred4x4]

Well best of luck worst case you blow a gasket not that big a deal did you get the bonded gaskets? or the older style gaskets that are separate an not "bonded" to the separator plate if you went bonded your chances would be much lower...any way I hope everything works out which I'm stickler for things like that now but I've used your method many times before for various things then checked it with a torque wrench later and was surprised that I was pretty much spot on.

 

[John Chapman]

... did you get the bonded gaskets? ....

Indeed, I did get the bonded gasket. This was highly recommended as a replacement part from multiple sources, including various posts from members here.

Time will tell. At over 200K before doing this, I don't think it is too bad for a transmission. Assuming that the prior owner hadn't had had this replaced.

If I do get further issues, I'll post about it.

Thanks BigRed4x4.

 

[JohnH55]

Could this fix a delayed shift into reverse, and drive. And also a shift flare from 1-2, and 3-4 at low acceleration in a 5R55E?

Thanks,
John

 

[Fredness]

Yes.
But these could also be symptoms of a larger problem.
I tried this 2x over the last 100,000 miles and it worked well both times.

 

[rbdemps]

Could this fix a delayed shift into reverse, and drive. And also a shift flare from 1-2, and 3-4 at low acceleration in a 5R55E?

Thanks,
John

Did you ever get an answer to that problem? I have same issues on a rebuilt tranny with 20k on build

 

[JohnH55]

Did you ever get an answer to that problem? I have same issues on a rebuilt tranny with 20k on build

I ended up getting a new transmission, mine was blown out. Although I know for reverse they is a extra thick o-ring for the servo. Is your trans still under warranty? If so ask the guys that put it in to look at it. If not, you could throw a shift kit, the servo upgrades, a sonnex kit at the VB. It seems after a certain amount of time these transmission just develop the engagement delay.